PHP is the world’s most popular server-side programming language, distributed for free under an open source license. It is designed from the offset to be used by skilled web developers who want create more powerful websites, as well as next generation web applications.

A general purpose scripting language

It is a general purpose scripting language crafted especially for Web development. It can be easily embedded into the old-school HTML (HyperText Markup Language), runs on different platforms and can be used as a standalone executable.

Additionally, PHP offers a syntax similar to the one of the Java, C and Perl programming languages. It is extremely easy to learn, especially if you have previous knowledge of HTML and other programming languages.

Supports major databases, web servers and other web technologies

Another interesting feature of the PHP server-side programming language is that it offers support for major database and web servers, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server, as well as Apache, nginx and Microsoft IIS.

Several widely used web technologies are also supported, such as Java, LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol), XML (Extensible Markup Language) and IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), as well as various Internet protocols, and FTP (File Transfer Protocol) servers.

It’s highly extensible

The software provides general data manipulation capabilities, it is highly extensible thanks to its built-in and powerful Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), and it is actively developed in multiple stable and development branches, each one supporting different technologies and features.

It is independent of an operating system

PHP is a cross-platform project, supported under all GNU/Linux distributions, as well as BSD, Solaris, Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows operating systems, and it's implemented in the C programming language. It has been successfully tested on computers supporting either of the 32 or 64-bit hardware platforms.

PHP was reviewed by Marius Nestor, last updated on February 19th, 2015